Emily's Lie
by SarahShalomDavid
Summary: Emily lies to Andrea which has a huge positive impact on everyone involved.


Miranda sighed to herself as she sat at her desk in her office at Runway, it had been a month since Andrea left Runway, left her, and she found herself missing the assistant. It was something that she had never felt in reference to any of her many different assistants, then again it was not something she felt in reference to her ex-husbands either which highlighted the reality of it all, the reason why she missed the dark-haired woman and that? That was that she was in love with the one and only Andrea Sachs. If only she had discovered that before Paris and more importantly before the woman left her.

The Editor-in-Chief ran her hand through her white hair lightly and sighed heavily as a tear slid down her cheek. She was glad that she had sent both of her assistants home for the night, Emily had looked rather concerned at the early dismissal as she had been scheduled to wait for the book as she had done ever since Andrea left but the new second assistant, of which was the fifth assistant since Paris, was rather eager to leave and did not truly care as to why she was being allowed to leave early.

Memories were continuously torturing her; she would sit at her desk and see Andrea walking in dressed in designer clothes from the closet in her mind's eye, she would walk past the assistants desks and for a moment she would see the woman sat at her desk, she would step into her own home and remember the nights that her beloved assistant would bring the book to her, and she would fall to sleep and dream of Paris. She would dream of sitting beside her in the town car, standing near her at functions, the multiple times they spoke, her determination to warn her about Irv's plan, and the way she left, but more importantly she would dream of what could have been. She dreamed of the conversations they never had, the kisses they never shared, the embraces she was never able to feel, and she also dreamed of what could have happened if she had stopped Andrea from leaving.

Whenever she thought of Andrea, she felt an overwhelming sadness but at the same time, she felt an overwhelming level of love. Looking back at the time that she had spent with the other woman she was coming to realise that she had loved her for a very long time but, unfortunately, she had not been consciously aware of it at the time.

Miranda sighed heavily and brushed another tear away from her cheek, she felt like she was being punished as the woman she was in love with did not love her back and detested her so much that she felt it necessary to run away from her in the middle of the busiest week of the year whilst in a foreign country. She did not take into account the possibility that she was wrong, it never crossed her mind that Andrea could possibly feel the same way or that she may be in as much pain as she was currently in.

She reached down and opened the bottom drawer of her own desk, reaching inside she extracted a photo frame, a pen, a sketchbook, a notebook, a box of chocolates, a book, and a few children's drawings, each of these items she placed on her desk.

The photo frame was a tourist-targeted product which was decorated with a three-dimensional copy of the Empire State building in the right corner along with a painted scene of New York City along the rest of the ceramic frame whilst inside of the frame was a family photo, Miranda did not recognise any of the people that were surrounding Andrea in the photo but she did not care about that because her focus was on the huge smile of the dark-haired woman.

The pen was something that she herself had thrown in Andrea's direction, she had pretended that it was an unwanted gift but in reality she simply wanted to give it to Andrea as she knew how much the woman loved to write but also because she thought that she may prefer a better pen when taking notes at work.

The notebook was a basic one with a black cover and lined paper inside with random notes that were just work-related although there were a few scribbles scattered within it.

The book was a slightly tattered copy of a classic novel that had clearly been read multiple times.

The children's drawings were something that she looked at often; the drawings were all done by her own children as she could see their names written at the bottom of each of the drawings. 'Cassidy' was written in lime green whilst 'Caroline' was written in a hot pink colour on every drawing. The drawings were varied but they appeared to be mostly centred around a 'family' concept because there were drawings of the girls with Andrea in various locations and often with Miranda in them too, and even Patricia appeared in a couple of them.

Miranda opened the sketchbook to the first page with her left hand whilst she used her right hand to reach over and open the box of chocolates so that she could take one of the chocolate's and pop it into her mouth. She smiled softly as she looked at the drawings, she noticed drawings of people and places that she did not recognise but she also saw drawings of people that worked at Runway, however, most of the drawings were of herself and her girls. She found herself wishing that she had a way to know what Andrea had been thinking when she had drawn the images. Whenever she opened the sketchbook she was very careful to not smudge the drawings in any way as she did not want to ruin them in any way as she wanted to preserve them.

Andrea hit the button for the correct floor of the building after she stepped into the elevator, she had been sent a message by Emily only an hour previously to tell her that her things were in a box for her to collect that evening as the ex-assistant was eager to get the items back, in reality, it was the drawings that she wanted the most because they meant so much to her. She had another copy of the photo and the frame was a cheap item that she had picked up on her first trip to New York, and the other items held very little meaning apart from the pen because of who gave it to her and the sketchbook because she rather liked some of her sketches. Andrea, however, would willingly abandon all of those items for the few simple drawings that had been given to her by the twins who had captured her heart, she had spent quite a lot of evenings speaking to the girls after dropping off the book following the 'Harry Potter incident'

She stepped off of the elevator and walked into the offices where she was looking around for the box of items, the text had, after all, stated that the items were in a box but she could not see it on either of the assistant desks. Andrea sighed slightly as she looked in the direction of Miranda's office, the light was not on but it was not needed as it was still quite light outside. A frown appeared on her face as she wondered why it would be in that office. Emily had told her that Miranda had left early and sent both assistants home too as well as requested that the book is on her desk first thing in the morning instead of it being taken to her home that night.

Miranda did not notice the presence of another person as she sat at her desk looking at the sketchbook, she had stopped at a sketch of herself with her twin girls and she reached out a hand to take another chocolate before popping it into her mouth.

"I see that you found my chocolate stash", Andrea said with amusement in her voice and a slight smirk on her face as she leaned against the doorframe to the office and watched her ex-boss in front of her.

Suddenly, the older woman began to cough and choke on the chocolate out of shock as she had not realised that she was there.

Andrea rushed forward straight away and tried to help her by tapping her back and once the coughing had ceased she went picked up the glass of water from the desk and handed it to her, "Here", she said softly, "Drink some of this, it'll make your throat feel better".

Miranda took a sip straight away, unusually doing as she was told to do.

"I didn't mean to scare you", she said softly with her hand remaining on the Editor-in-Chief's back.

"You didn't scare me", Miranda said, "You simply surprised me.". She put the glass of water back down on the square placemat that sat on her desk, "It isn't every day that your ex-assistant appears in your office".

"Emily text me earlier", Andrea explained, "She told me that she had put my things in a box and that I could collect them from her desk but it appears that she was lying".

Miranda glanced down at the items that were now sat on her desk, "It appears so".

"She would have known that you would be here and that neither of them would be", Andrea said quietly, "But why?".

"How am I supposed to know Andrea?", the woman questioned.

Andrea bit her lip as she thought for a moment but then she remembered something, she remembered telling Nigel in Paris that she was in love with Miranda so the only reasoning that it could be was that it was related to that. Despite the fact that she now realised why Emily had lied, she did not tell Miranda the reason.

Miranda was looking down at the sketchbook on the same page as she had been before choking, "I guess that you will be wanting to take your things?", she said quietly, "If you wish to find a box then I am sure there are some in the stationary cupboard although I'm sure that the items will fit in your bag".

"I don't need a box", Andrea said softly, "To be honest it's just the drawings that I really wanted".

"The girls' drawings or this sketchbook?", Miranda questioned.

"The girls' drawings", she replied, "They're important to me".

"They are?", Miranda asked softly as she looked up.

"Of course", Andrea answered simply, "Caroline and Cassidy spent a lot of time on those and they mean a lot to me. The girls and the drawings".

Miranda nodded and reached into one of her drawers pulling a plastic wallet out and emptying its contents back into the drawer before using it to put the drawings into, "To protect them", she said simply before putting them in front of Andrea.

"Thank you Miranda", she said with a smile.

There was silence for a moment as neither woman knew what to say next and Miranda returned her focus to the sketchbook.

"You can keep that", Andrea said softly, it had not been what she had intended to do but she now found herself wanting to, "You can keep the sketchbook, you seem to really like it".

"I do Andrea", Miranda said as she touched the paper at the edge, "If I had known that you were so good at sketching then I would have asked you to do a portrait of the girls and I a while ago". She tapped the paper lightly, "This is my favourite", she said although wishing that Andrea had drawn herself in it as well in order to make it complete.

"It's my favourite too", Andrea admitted, "I rather enjoyed drawing that one".

"Have the girls seen any of these?", Miranda asked without taking her eyes off of the sketch in front of her.

Andrea nodded, "Yes, they've seen all of them", she admitted quietly, "They have copies of some of them too, this was the sketch that they asked me to do before…".

"Before Paris", Miranda finished when Andrea failed to complete her sentence.

The woman simply nodded in agreement but did not verbalise her response.

"Thank you", Miranda said with a smile as she looked up at Andrea, "Thank you for the drawings". She was trying to hide her sadness at the memories that the word 'Paris' brought to her mind and she was trying to force the tears not to fall from her eyes.

Andrea smiled, "No problem", she said softly, "Maybe I should draw some more before you take the book? There aren't many pages left and that way you'll have a full book". She was right as there were only three pages left.

"Acceptable", came the response from the fashion Queen.

"Miranda?", Andrea asked softly, "Emily said that you'd gone home early and sent them…".

"Which we have already determined was a lie", Miranda interrupted.

"Home...so why are you still here?", Andrea asked whilst ignoring the interruption, "Why aren't you at home?".

"I just wanted some peace and the girls aren't home from their friend's house for another hour yet so I didn't want to be in an empty house", Miranda explained.

She had not expected a full explanation, in actual fact she expected a refusal to answer, "Well, in that case, I will leave you in peace", Andrea said quietly as she picked up the few items from the desk but left the chocolates, "I'll finish the sketchbook and bring it back to you".

Miranda nodded but did not respond verbally as she fought off the tears that were threatening to flow down her cheeks at the thought of losing Andrea. She was a strong woman and very independent, however, she had been so focused on success and she had been used so many times by those wanting to use her as a stepping stone to becoming more affluent that she had become nervous around the concept of love and rather hesitant to acknowledge it.

"Do you want me to tell you why Emily lied to me?", Andrea asked softly, "At least why I think she did".

"Well, by all means, move at a glacial pace", Miranda responded after a moment, "You know how that thrills me".

Andrea smirked slightly, "When we were in Paris", she said, watching as Miranda visibly flinched, "I told Nigel something". She took a breath, she was nervous as she spoke and it showed in her voice and facial expressions, "I told him that I had fallen in love", she paused for a moment, "with you". "So do you see now why Emily lied?", Andrea asked softly, "She found out from Nigel and… the other night I admitted that all I wanted was a chance to say goodbye because leaving without saying it was so incredibly rude of me".

"Is that all you want?", Miranda questioned, "to say goodbye?".

"It's all I can hope for", Andrea replied.

"And if you could hope for more?", Miranda asked with curiosity as she looked up at Andrea.

"I would hope for…", Andrea paused, "How about I show you instead?".

Miranda looked a little confused at this, "Okay", she said quietly.

"Take a look in the back of the sketchbook", Andrea said with a smile as she placed it back down on the desk.

"But it's empty at the back", Miranda stated as she opened it back up and went straight to the back of the book.

Andrea shook her head, "Pull back the black cover", she requested.

Miranda did as she was told and as she did she discovered another page, this one was folded in half. As she opened it she looked at the image in front of her; the sketch was of her and Andrea together on a picnic blanket with Caroline and Cassidy along with Patricia but the most important aspect, at least to Miranda, was that the two adults in the image were leaning against each other with their arms wrapped around each other. There were a two hearts drawn in the top corner that were linked together and shaded in with a dash of red.

"I would wish for that", Andrea said softly, "And the other drawings too although I can promise you that the girls have not seen these ones as they've only seen the ones in the sketchbook pages".

Miranda nodded as she pulled out the others which were of them all but in different scenarios which included; all snuggled up by the fire with hot chocolates, all in front of the Christmas tree, all watching the New Year's Eve firework display, and the two of them in bed partially covered with a sheet whilst Miranda appeared to be resting on Andrea's chest. The Editor-in-Chief blushed slightly at the last one. "You wish for this?", she questioned as she looked up from the book, "All of this?".

Andrea nodded, "Yes", she replied, "Now do you see why I could only hope for a goodbye? To see you just one last time?".

"No, I don't", Miranda replied simply, "You seem to have failed to take into account the concept that I might want those things too". "It is rather selfish of you, don't you think so Andrea?", the older woman questioned.

Andrea's jaw dropped in shock as she did not know what she should say next.

"Andrea?", Miranda prompted gently, "Do you still want this?", she said waving her hand in the direction of the book.

Slowly the woman nodded in response to that although it was clear that the woman was still in shock.

"Then don't you think you should at least kiss me?", Miranda replied with a smirk, "How else are we going to end up in that position?", as she said it she had indicated to the image of the two of them lying together in bed.

It took no more prompting from Miranda as Andrea swooped in and pressed her lips against hers with a loving kiss.

Miranda reached up and grabbed hold of the other woman before she pulled her closer and deepened the kiss.

That evening, after the girl's had shown their absolute delight at the return of Andrea, Miranda was lying in bed with her head resting on Andrea's nude chest and she found herself feeling much happier than she had felt in weeks. She decided in that moment that Emily deserved a promotion. After all, Emily had given her the happy ending that her heart desired.

A/N: Just a quick thing that I wrote in one of my lectures - as you can probably guess the lecture was very boring!


End file.
